Slideshow: Surprising ways smoking affects your looks and life

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Which twin is the smoker?

Perhaps there is no fountain of youth, but there is one guaranteed way to make yourself look older. Smoking changes the skin, teeth and hair in ways that can add years to your looks. It also affects everything from your fertility to the strength of your heart, lungs and bones. Take a look at these side-by-side photos. Can you pick out the smoker? Remember your pick and get a closer look on the next slide.

Tobacco's tell-tale signs

Twin B smoked half a pack a day for 14 years, while her sister never smoked. The loose skin under her eyes is typical of smokers, according to experts. It's one of several visible signs – shown on the following slides – that tobacco by-products inside your body are harming your appearance. Twin B also got more sun, damaging her skin from the outside, too.

Poor skin tone

Smoking chronically deprives the skin of oxygen and nutrients. So some smokers appear pale, while others develop uneven colouring. These changes can begin at a young age.

Sagging skin

There are more than 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke and many of them trigger the destruction of collagen and elastin. These are the fibres that give your skin its strength and elasticity. Smoking or even being around second-hand smoke degrades the building blocks of the skin. The consequences include sagging skin and deeper wrinkles.

Sagging arms and breasts

Smoking doesn't only damage the appearance of your face, it can also take a toll on your figure. As skin loses its elasticity, parts that were once firm may begin to droop. This includes the inner arms and breasts. Researchers have identified smoking as a top cause of sagging breasts.

Lines around the lips

Smoking delivers a double blow to the area around your mouth. First, you have the smoker's pucker. Smokers use certain muscles around their lips that cause them to have dynamic wrinkles that nonsmokers do not. You also have the loss of elasticity. Together, these factors can lead to deep lines around the lips.

Age spots

Age spots are blotches of darker skin colour that are common on the face and hands. While anyone can develop these spots from spending too much time in the sun, research suggests smokers are more susceptible.

In this image, the twin on the right spent decades smoking and sunbathing, while her sister did not.

Damaged teeth and gums

Yellow teeth are one of the most notorious effects of long-term smoking, but the dental damage doesn't stop there. People who smoke tend to develop gum disease, persistent bad breath and other oral hygiene problems. Smokers are twice as likely to lose teeth as nonsmokers.

Stained fingers

Think your hand looks sexy with a cigarette perched between your fingers? If you've been smoking for a while, take a good look at your fingernails and the skin of your hands. Tobacco can actually stain the skin and nails as well as the teeth. The good news is these stains tend to fade when you quit smoking.

Hair loss

Both men and women tend to develop thinner hair as they age, and smoking can accelerate this process. Some studies even suggest people who smoke are more likely to go bald. Researchers in Taiwan have identified smoking as a clear risk factor for male-pattern baldness in Asian men.

Cataracts

Even the eyes are vulnerable to tobacco's reach. Smoking makes you more likely to develop cataracts as you age. These are cloudy areas in the lens of the eye that keep light from reaching the retina. If they cause serious vision problems, they are treated with surgery.

Psoriasis

Psoriasis is a chronic condition that often causes thick, scaly patches on the skin – usually on the knees, elbows, scalp, hands, feet or back. The patches may be white, red or silver. Studies suggest smokers have a greater risk of developing psoriasis.

Crow's feet eye wrinkles

Everyone gets wrinkles on the outside of the eyes eventually, but these wrinkles develop earlier and go deeper among smokers. Heat from burning cigarettes and squinting to keep smoke out of your eyes contribute to visible crow's feet. Meanwhile, chemicals from inhaled tobacco cause internal damage to the skin structures and blood vessels around your eyes.

How quitting improves your looks

Quitting smoking can improve your appearance. As blood flow gets better, your skin receives more oxygen and nutrients. This can help you develop a healthier complexion. If you stay tobacco-free, the stains on your fingers and nails will disappear. You may even notice your teeth getting whiter.

Combating skin damage: Creams

When you quit smoking, you make your skin more resistant to premature ageing. As for the wrinkles and age spots you already have, all is not lost. There are products former smokers may find help their skin look better. These include topical retinoids and antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E. Sunscreen will also help prevent sun-damaged skin.

Combating skin damage: Procedures

For more dramatic results, some former smokers choose to have cosmetic procedures. Laser skin resurfacing and chemical peels remove outer layers of skin, where the damage is most visible.

Brittle bones

Everyone knows the lungs take a beating from smoking, but research has pinpointed additional, surprising ways that tobacco affects the body, starting with your bones. Smoking increases your risk of developing weakened bones, or osteoporosis. This condition increases your risk of bone fractures including those of the spine, causing it to curve and leave you hunched over. The bone shown on the left is healthy; the one on the right is brittle.

Heart disease and erectile dysfunction

As well as changing your looks, smoking affects nearly every organ in the body, including the heart. In people who smoke, the arteries that carry blood to the heart become narrowed over time. Smoking also increases blood pressure and makes it easier for blood to clot. These factors increase the risk of having a heart attack. In men who smoke, reduced blood flow can lead to erectile dysfunction.

Reduced athletic ability

Smoking's impact on the heart and lungs can add up to a significant disadvantage on the track or field. Smokers tend to have a more rapid heart rate, poorer circulation and more shortness of breath – not helpful qualities in an athlete. Whatever your favourite sport, one way to enhance your performance is to quit smoking.

Reproductive problems

Women who smoke have a harder time getting pregnant and giving birth to a healthy baby. Cigarettes have been linked to fertility problems. And smoking during pregnancy increases the risks of having a miscarriage, premature birth or delivering a low-birth-weight infant.

Early menopause

It's something all women have in common: menopause, the phase when female hormones decline and the menstrual cycle stops for good. Most women experience this change around the age of 50. However, smokers reach menopause an average of 18 months earlier than women who don't smoke. The effect is strongest in women who have smoked heavily for many years.

Mouth cancer

Compared to nonsmokers, smokers are up to five times more likely to develop mouth cancer. According to the NHS, if you smoke more than 40 cigarettes a day and you also drink an average of 30 pints a week, you are 38 times more likely to develop mouth cancer. Quitting smoking lowers the risk of oral cancer substantially within a few years. The most common symptoms include a sore patch on the tongue, lips, gums or other area inside the mouth that doesn't go away and may be painful.

Lung cancer

Lung cancer is the top cancer killer of men and women in the UK. Of those who develop lung cancer 85% to 90% of cases are due to smoking. Cigarettes can also damage the lungs in other ways, making people more vulnerable to breathing problems and dangerous infections like pneumonia.

How quitting improves your health

In just 20 minutes, blood pressure and heart rate return to normal. Within 24 hours, your lungs start to clear out smoking debris as tiny cilia (seen here) work sweeping irritants out of the lungs. After a year, your risk of a heart attack drops to half that of people who still smoke; after 15 years of being an ex-smoker, risk of a heart attack falls to that of someone who’s never smoked. And after 10 smoke-free years, risk of lung cancer is about half that of a smoker.

Cigarette stench

Quitting eliminates the pervasive smell of cigarettes on your breath, on your clothes, and in your hair. This smell is unattractive to nonsmokers and carries health hazards, too. The odour means that the people around you are exposed to tobacco toxins, sometimes called 'third-hand smoke'. These toxins can be especially harmful to small children.

Can you quit?

Experts agree that giving up cigarettes is very difficult, but if you're telling yourself it's impossible, think again. 21% of men and 19% of women in the UK smoke. Around 60% of smokers would like to quit. It is doable: studies show smokers are more likely to quit with NHS help.

NHS Choices – Lung cancer, Treatment and support to quit smoking
Cancer Research UK – Smoking statistics, Tobacco and cancer risk - statistics
An overview of 40 years of data (General Lifestyle Survey Overview - a report on the 2011 General Lifestyle Survey)
American Cancer Society
American Journal of Medicine, November 2007.
American Lung Association
American Society of Plastic Surgeons, news release
Archives of Dermatology, November 2007.
California State University Northridge, USA
Guyuron, B. Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery, April 2009.
Dr Jonette Keri, PhD, associate professor of dermatology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, USA
Medline Plus
US National Cancer Institute
US Oral Cancer Foundation
The Nemours Foundation
University of Michigan Health System, USA
US Department of Health and Human Services

THIS TOOL DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. It is intended for general information purposes only and does not address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment and should not be relied on to make decisions about your health. Never ignore professional medical advice in seeking treatment because of something you have read on the BootsWebMD Site. If you have a medical problem please contact your GP. In England call 111. In Scotland call NHS 24. In Wales, call NHS Direct Wales. In the case of medical emergencies, always dial 999.

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